Bad internet and landline services to be compensated automatically

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Bad internet and landline services must be compensated automatically

Broadband providers must automatically compensate customers for bad service under new Ofcom rules.

Broadband and landline users will be able to get money back from their providers when things go wrong. Customers can do this without having to make a claim, under new rules laid out by communications watchdog Ofcom.

The regulator has said that automatic compensation will be handed out for slow repairs, missed appointments and delayed installations.

Ofcom said that at present, compensation is paid out in around one in seven, or 15 per cent, of cases. Even then, it is only in small amounts.

Under the new rules, if repairs to service are delayed following an outage, customer will get £8 for every calendar day on which the service is not repaired after two full working days.

They will also get £25 for an engineer missing an appointment or cancelling with less than 24 hours’ notice. Customers will get £5 for each calendar day after the day on which a customer was promised the provider would start a new service.

Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom’s consumer group director has released a statement. “Waiting too long for your landline or broadband to be fixed is frustrating enough,” she said.

She said that under the new rules, “people will get the money they deserve, while providers will want to work harder to improve their service.”

Ofcom said that, overall, they expect compensation levels to increase around nine-fold.

Consumer group Which? welcomed the move.

“We are pleased that compensation for poor broadband is going to become automatic”, Alex Neill, managing director of home services at Which? said.

“For all consumers to get what they’re entitled to, it’s vital that all providers play fair and sign up to this scheme.”

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